On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council passed the proposed sanctuary city ordinance that prohibits federal immigration agents from using or working with L.A .city resources for immigration enforcement. The ordinance was passed in a unanimous 13-0 vote by the city councilmembers.
The passing of the ordinance comes just one day after President-elect Donald Trump declared his plans of declaring a national emergency and utilizing the military for the mass deportation of immigrants.
Organizing members of groups such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), who protested at the beginning of November about the new administration’s policies, were back at Los Angeles City Hall calling out the mass deportation policies that Trump has promised.
Protestors from other organizations also gathered outside the Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday to speak about the injustice, unfairness and challenges that they are and will be facing.
Luz Castillo, an organizer at the international labor union Unite Here Local 11, voiced her disagreement about how the president-elect speaks about immigrants.
Castillo said that she disagrees with a lot of Trump’s opinions, in particular opinions that demean women. “We don’t agree in the sense that he speaks very poorly [about immigrants], and gives little value to… women,” she said.
Katie Nixon, a coalition committee member, emphasized the objectives of their efforts and protests.
“We are fighting… because we’re all equal together. We win together. We fight together. We could do anything that we want to do,” she said.
Nixon added that America isn’t only for one set of people, but that the country is for all different ethnic backgrounds to live, work and raise their children if that is what they want to do.
Councilman Bob Blumenfield said that Los Angeles has been a pro-immigrant city for years, and the new Trump administration is a threat to the city’s efforts.
“We are codifying our good policies on protecting immigrants,” he said.
Recently ousted council member Kevin De León said the city’s effort is “largely symbolic and perfomative.”
“The law already exists in the state of California,” he said. The new ordinance codifies that belief locally in Los Angeles.
The passing of the sanctuary ordinance may bring security to some immigrant communities in Los Angeles, but nationwide, President-elect Trump’s plans for deportation threaten to remove undocumented immigrants at unprecedented levels.